Adventure 443: The Story of George, 20

February 10, 2018

Real time found George at the arts and crafts table this morning working to decoupage the photo Judy and I sent out for Christmas. It appeared he had a good morning, although he only took half of his morning pills, which likely means he was interrupted or otherwise distracted. But the reports were that he ate well, felt hungry for lunch, and his art project looked good. Bottom line is that the George ride has hit a bit of a straight away. 

In some ways it's unfair of me to condemn George for abandoning his first family. If I put myself in his shoes for a moment, what else was a man of thirty-five to do? Clearly, his only choice was to move on, and like I've said, he and Margaret were prepared to take on the world together. One dream they had was a house of their own on a couple acres. They worked hard to make that dream come true. While living and working in Portland, they bought some land in LaPine, Oregon. They bought two acres out in a wooded housing development. They had neighbors close, but not close enough to bother with if they chose to be recluse. George and Margaret drove over to the property every weekend for a number of years. They would stay in their motorhome and do various projects on the property. From the outset, they had worked out a shared vision. They figured the layout of the house, the driveway, the garden, the future shop, the "boneyard", and every other aspect of the place. The very first thing they did was clear the land. It was covered with shrubs George called bitter bush. The bush was difficult to uproot and full of oils. When stacked, it caused an inferno. George spent the winter of the first year chopping and burning bitter bush. From that point forward, the two of them worked with purpose until they were able to move into their dream home. They were happy there for quite some time.

 Vina, the instigator, working on her project, too.

A view of the main house before the sun room was added to the left and the two barn like shop structure were added to the back. By its end, the property was quite well appointed. George, with Margaret's input, designed and built the whole thing. And he was deservedly proud of the final product.